How a structure forms, breaks and recovers
Once you have your structure, see whether it is formed, what threatens it, and what in your chart offsets each threat. Pair every threat with its remedy.
By Sheng Pin Kai·Last updated
In Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi), a structure is judged formed or broken by how the four pillars pair with the structure taken from the month. The books weigh every threat together with its remedy: a structure that is broken can often still be rescued by another element in the chart.
With the structure taken and the enabler found, the next question is whether the structure is formed or broken. The True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠; Qing dynasty, 18th century) weighs threat and remedy together:
成中有败，必是带忌；败中有成，全凭救应。Our translation: Where something fails within what is formed, there must be an unfavorable element carried; where something forms within what is broken, it rests wholly on a remedy.
Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping (子平真诠评注; ROC, 1936) explains: carrying an unfavorable element is the ailment, an element in the four pillars that hurts the structure; the remedy is the cure, the element that removes the ailment, which is the enabler of the lesson on the enabler. So each time you find an ailment, look next for its cure.
The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Importance of the Enabler
What counts as formed
The book takes the useful element from the month alone, then sets the four pillars against it, and formed or broken follows. It lists what a formed structure looks like, structure by structure:
| Structure | Formed |
|---|---|
| Direct Officer | The Officer meets Wealth and Resource, with no punishment, clash, destruction or harm |
| Wealth | Strong Wealth generating the Officer; Wealth fed by the Food Star, with a strong Day Master and Peers present; Resource revealed in a Wealth structure, well placed, so Wealth and Resource do not control each other |
| Resource | Light Resource meeting Seven Killings; the Officer and Resource both present; the Day Master and Resource both strong, drained by Output; plentiful Resource meeting Wealth, revealed but lightly rooted |
| Food Star | The Food Star generating Wealth; the Food Star with Seven Killings and no Wealth; the Food Star set aside for Seven Killings, with Resource revealed |
| Seven Killings | A strong Day Master, with Seven Killings checked |
| Hurting Officer | The Hurting Officer generating Wealth; the Hurting Officer paired with Resource, the Hurting Officer strong and the Resource rooted; the Hurting Officer strong and the Day Master weak, with Seven Killings and Resource revealed; the Hurting Officer with Seven Killings and no Wealth |
| Yang Blade | The Officer or Seven Killings revealed, with Wealth and Resource, and no Hurting Officer |
| Month Prosperity | The Officer revealed, meeting Wealth or Resource; Wealth revealed, meeting Output; Seven Killings revealed and checked |
The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied
Ailment and cure
The left column below lists what the book calls breaking or carrying an unfavorable element; the right, the remedy it gives.
| Structure | What to be mindful of | What often rescues it |
|---|---|---|
| Direct Officer | The Hurting Officer attacking the Officer | Revealed Resource resolves it, protecting the Officer |
| Direct Officer | Seven Killings mixed in | Seven Killings combined away, leaving the Officer clear |
| Direct Officer | The Officer clashed | Another branch combines and resolves the clash |
| Wealth | Peers sharing out Wealth | A revealed Food Star turns the Peers’ energy toward generating Wealth; or Wealth generates the Officer, and the Officer checks the Peers |
| Wealth | Seven Killings revealed, and Wealth turning to generate it | The Food Star checks Seven Killings and also generates Wealth; or Seven Killings is combined away, leaving Wealth |
| Resource | Wealth breaking Resource | Rob Wealth controls Wealth, protecting Resource; or Wealth is combined away, leaving Resource |
| Food Star | Indirect Resource seizing the Food Star | Turning to Seven Killings and Resource to form the structure; or revealed Wealth checks Indirect Resource, protecting the Food Star |
| Seven Killings | The Food Star checks Seven Killings, but revealed Resource controls the Food Star | Revealed Wealth removes the Resource, keeping the Food Star |
| Hurting Officer | The Hurting Officer generating Wealth, with Seven Killings revealed as well | Seven Killings combined away |
| Yang Blade | Using the Officer or Seven Killings, with Output checking them | Heavy Resource checks the Output, protecting the Officer or Seven Killings |
| Month Prosperity | Using the Officer and meeting the Hurting Officer; using Wealth with Seven Killings | The Hurting Officer bound by a combination; Seven Killings bound by a combination |
The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied
Formed or broken also depends on the Day Master and on position. The book’s examples: strong Wealth generating the Officer is a formed structure, but with a weak Day Master and the Officer revealed it becomes broken; the Hurting Officer meeting the Officer is unwelcome, but with Wealth revealed in the right position, the Hurting Officer generates Wealth and Wealth generates the Officer, and the problem is resolved.
The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied
Broken through forming, formed through breaking
Combinations and positions can turn formed into broken, and broken into formed. The book’s examples: turning the Hurting Officer into Wealth is a formed structure, but take a Yin Metal Day Master born in a Pig month, with Yin Fire revealed as Seven Killings. The Rabbit and Goat combine with the Pig into a Wealth group, and Wealth turns to feed Seven Killings: broken through what formed it. An Officer-and-Resource structure meeting the Hurting Officer is broken, but take a Yin Metal Day Master born in a Dog month, with Yang Fire, the Officer, on the year stem and Yang Water, the Hurting Officer, on the hour stem. The month stem Yang Earth, a Resource, stands between them, so Yang Water cannot reach Yang Fire, and it drains the Day Master’s refinement instead: formed through what broke it. Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping says such changes mostly start from combinations: see whether a combination can change the original energy, and whether the change fits what the Day Master needs.
The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Broken Through Forming, Formed Through Breaking; Commentary on the True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Broken Through Forming, Formed Through Breaking
The book concludes that the subtle working of the eight characters lies wholly in formed, broken and remedied, and that the weighing is flexible. In looking at a chart, do not let the changes leave you without a view, and do not hold to one rule and miss the changes.
The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Formed, Broken and Remedied; The True Interpretation of Ziping · On the Useful Element: Broken Through Forming, Formed Through Breaking
Symbolic stars do not decide formed or broken
Whether a structure is formed or broken depends only on how the month and the four pillars generate and control one another. Symbolic stars take no part in generating and controlling; they cannot form a structure, and they cannot break one.
The True Interpretation of Ziping · On Why the Stars Do Not Decide the Structure
Try it on your chart
- Write down the structure and pivot, and check against the first table whether the structure is already formed.
- Using the second table, circle the elements in your chart that hurt the structure: these are ailments.
- For each ailment you circle, look in the four pillars for its cure: an element that checks it, combines it or channels it.
- See whether a combination changes the original energy, turning formed into broken or broken into formed.
- If the ailments outnumber the cures, note which kind of element is missing, and keep it for the lesson on decade phases and your structure, to see whether a decade phase can supply it.
See also: The enabler: the structure’s supporting element
See also: Two kinds of handling: nurture and restrain
See also: Combined structures, overlay structures and “transforms into”
See also: Structure quality: clear or turbid, pure or mixed
See also: Roles in the chart: useful element, enabler, ailment and remedy element (and bridging element)
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